rose gold: a collection of ErLu
by thir13enth
Summary: So who wears the pants in the relationship? Well preferably no one will be wearing pants. A series of ErLu/Heartlet drabbles.
1. tangled

**notes:** First, thank you tumblr user **hannibb** , as they were the one that made the quote that I use in my caption for this ficlet series! Second, welcome to this dump of Erlu/Heartlet! Finally starting to upload these drabbles to fanfiction. More to come. And yes, I'm utter stinky rancid trash for this ship. Which is crazy because I'm hardcore Jerza too. How. Why. Sigh.

Anyway, this is one of five, for **boogey56**. Bless her heart for actually tolerating me as a person in her life.

* * *

 **tangled**

 _This is Lucy's favorite position._

* * *

This is Lucy's favorite position.

She sits between Erza's thighs—her legs half-hugging the redhead's waist, her calves gently pressed up against fuzzy pajamas and a plump bottom, her back slightly arched to curve herself up forward a couple inches so she can reach the other woman's forehead with her lips, her forearms resting on either side of her neck, her hands playing around in the thick and warm curtain of her hair.

She hums softly to herself while she runs her fingers through Erza's long thick tresses. She doesn't recall a day when she isn't fascinated to no end by the ruby red strands, shimmering in the light in shades of dark maroon, garnet blood, and scarlet embers. She twists the soft silky locks around her left finger and then lets it loose, watching the strands unravel like rose buds.

She does this again and again, each time watching different sunsets of red in the amber lamp light, and with each wrap of her finger, counting all the many things she loves about this girl who stole her heart.

She bites her bottom lip pensively, eyes still fixed on Erza's hair, before she's interrupted with a rough nudge from said woman.

"Hey," Erza teases, nuzzling the blonde's cheek with her nose. "My face is up here."

* * *

 **thir13enth**


	2. caught

**notes:** ErLu for days. The second of five for **boogey56**.

* * *

 **caught**

 _Lucy's shower was absolutely off-limits. Well, with one redheaded exception. (Implied Gratsu.)_

* * *

It wasn't like Lucy was never annoyed at the flame brain and the ice doofus for barging into her room at ungodly hours—both demanding to use her shower and eating all the snacks in her pantry while they were at it—but on this particular night, the celestial mage was especially flustered.

"Natsu, Gray, you have to at least _knock_ on the door before you come in!" Lucy groaned, exasperated as a broken record.

"What's the big deal, Luce? We've been doing this ever since we met you," the dragon slayer drawled, kicking off his shoes in the middle of the room on his way in without losing pace, heading straight for her refrigerator.

Gray wasn't any more considerate, yawning and stretching out his arms while he fell face flat onto the sofa at the other side of her studio. He let his body fall so heavily that on impact, the sofa legs screeched a bit over her hard wood floor, a sound that made the blonde cringe.

"I haven't _cleaned_ yet," she sighed emphatically, letting a small petrified shiver leave her body. "I know that you gremlins couldn't care any less about the state of your rooms but I do, and I expect you to respect that when you're in my space."

"Whatever," the raven-haired man said, rolling Lucy's comment off in the same way that he rolled off her sofa onto the floor before he picked himself up to his full height and walked over to where Natsu was sniffing around her pantry. As expected, he drops his buttoned shirt to the floor on his way there.

"You don't mind when other people come hang out in your room without telling you though," Natsu pointed out, licking some orange cheese puff powder off his fingertips.

"Yeah, well not everyone else decides that my room is the first place to go after a hot date with each other," she muttered under her breath, ignoring the discreet-not-so-discreet way the two men brushed their arms against each other—all while ripping open bags of family-sized packages of shrimp chips and soy crisps that Lucy had been _trying_ to save for next weekend's Fairy Tail picnic.

Gray wiped his oily and crumby hands onto his chest—the sight of which Lucy grimaced at—before suddenly regretfully looking down at his now-greasy skin.

"I'm going to use your shower," he announced, and then turned to said direction.

This makes Lucy get up. "Absolutely not," she simply said, keeping herself from fuming. "You know that's off-limits. _No one_ uses my shower after what happened last month."

"Luce, I already told you I'm _sorry_ about turning the water the wrong way and breaking the shower knob!" Natsu frowned.

" _And_ making my entire bathroom floor flood and my water bill double in the several hours that we couldn't figure out how to turn off the water!" Lucy reminded him, glaring at the man—who wasn't even paying attention to what she was saying. "Hey! Are you even listening to me—"

She only took her eyes off Gray for a split second and by the time she looked back at the ice mage, he was already behind the bathroom door.

"Hey!" she yelled, stomping over and rapping her fist to the door.

No response.

"Hey!" she repeated again, knocking a bit more urgently. "I said _no one_ is allowed to use—"

The door opened suddenly, and even Natsu was surprised that Gray had actually obeyed at all.

"Then whose hair is this?" he challenged.

Lucy couldn't help but blush when she saw the all-too-familiar scarlet strand of hair between Gray's fingertips. Gray was quick to notice and an all-too-familiar smirk crawled over his lips, but Lucy just as quickly shut him down.

"P-put on some pants!"

* * *

 **thir13enth**


	3. guess-timating

**notes** : This one is AU. Three of five for **boogey56**.

* * *

 **guess-timating**

 _Erza hangs the bait right in front of Lucy, but the blonde isn't biting._

* * *

"…and so that's why I need to figure out how to tell her," Erza finishes, having spilled all her tea about a certain classmate in her history class that she often asked do check problem sets with, and often asked to have lunch with, and often asked to crash with on late nights when she didn't want to go back to her dorm—and basically this cute blonde girl named Lucy captured Erza's heart.

"Why don't you just leave her a little love note then?" Mirajane suggests to her scarlet-haired friend next to her, looking a lot more stressed than usual. She gives her long time childhood friend a smile from across the dining hall table.

Erza doesn't look like she thinks that's the answer. She blows absentmindedly at a fallen bang in front of her forehead, but the strands of hair stubbornly block her vision again.

"That's lame," she admits.

But after about a minute of not being able to come up with something better, she submits to the previous idea:

"So…you'll help me write this letter thing, right?"

 **later**

As the ever wise Mira predicts, Lucy finds the neatly folded red-white-pink note under her pillow (lame, Erza knows) and she tilts her head in curiosity, sitting down onto her bed and flipping the paper to the other side.

"How odd," Lucy murmurs to herself, her eyebrows furrowing together in such a massively adorable way that Erza has to hug herself to keep from glomping the other woman. "I wonder what this is."

Erza does her best to behave properly—meaning she pretends to not know at all that what Lucy was holding in her hands was Erza's raw heart on cardstock—but even she is aware that she's not doing a good job of it at all.

Every second feels like eternity. And Lucy takes too damn long to appreciate the carefully written letters on the front of the card—although it is just like her to admire the calligraphy that Mira helped Erza out with out of pity for Erza's non-artistic hands.

"Oh no," Lucy sighs.

Erza's heart suddenly feels a clutch. What does _that_ reaction mean?

Lucy looked up at Erza, biting her lip hesitantly. She looks away at the floor before breathing in and out.

"I...I don't know how I feel about this."

Erza gulps slowly. She feels her heart tighten, and then Lucy looks up at her again.

"…what is it?" Erza asks slowly.

"I think it's a love note," Lucy starts, looking down at the message again. She hands the card to Erza. "Here, read it."

But the redhead doesn't know if she would be able to keep up her façade when she looks at her own heartfelt words on the page in front of her. But there it is in front of her, in all of its glory.

She reads it once. Her mouth becomes dry. "Oh, wow," she says.

"Yeah," Lucy muses, leaning over to look over Erza's shoulder at the card again.

Erza tenses when seeing Lucy's golden hair in her peripheral vision, a couple of strands tangling up in her own red hair. Erza takes a sharp inhale and moves a few inches away from Lucy—she usually gets as close to the other girl as much as she can, but right now she needs some space.

"I don't know what to tell him," the blonde continues.

She pauses. "H-him?"

"Yeah," Lucy confirms. "I mean, it has to be Natsu. Natsu is in my room all the time…he's the only one that could have left it here, right?" She takes a breath. "I just…Natsu's been with me longer than I can remember and we've been great childhood friends and we're really close but…I've never seen him romantically…and to be honest, I didn't think he did either…"

Natsu?! Did Lucy really think a heathen like that pink-haired troublemaker could write such a beautiful confession like the one on the card in front of her?

"Well…" Erza starts, thinking that she still has a chance. "What makes you think it was Natsu?"

At long last, Erza decides that she cannot wait any longer for Lucy to call it out.

"Who else has the other spare key to your room and is in here as much as him?" she asks her, giving her a wink, one that Erza may have just been practicing for the last month in the mirror for just this moment.

Then Lucy realizes, and her jaw drops as her eyes stare back up at Erza's—

"It's GRAY?!"

And this is when Erza realizes that maybe there aren't just two spare keys to Lucy's room.

* * *

 **thir13enth**


	4. 0 percent

**notes:** i am so MAD at myself for not uploading all these erlu/heartlet drabbles! i completely forgot that i wrote them and i was just reading through them because i was thinking of moving them to ao3 and then i realized that i actually didn't even post some of these up and i'm just arghhh

so here's another effort at uploading them all

 **extra notes:** this request drabble is for **dragonshost**. (go check out her writing!)

* * *

 **0 percent**

 _sunhat, umbrella, firework, flustered, soaked_

* * *

When Erza felt the first drops of cool rain fall on her nose, she was admittedly a little confused.

In fact, she was so befuddled that it seemed to show on her face as well—and Lucy made it a point to giggle softly, her hand covering her mouth when she saw the sudden look of dismay on the taller woman's face, who stopped mid-step.

"It's raining," Erza remarked, but it came out sounding like a question.

"No, it's not, you silly," Lucy said, tilting the brim of her sunhat up so that she could look up at the sky. She stretched out her other hand palm up to scout the air. "There was zero-percent chance of rain today, and it's so sunny—"

Then she was interrupted by a droplet that suddenly landed on her cheek, and it was Erza's turn to laugh.

"Told you," the redhead boasted, sticking her tongue at the other woman.

"A sunshower," Lucy mused.

Erza smiled, watching the glint in Lucy's eyes, but then several more drops landed on her face and she slowly began to realize that even the fox's wedding was no laughing matter.

Lucy must have felt the same thing, because she suddenly turned to toward her and exclaimed, "We're going to be soaked if we don't find somewhere to take cover!"

But Erza wasn't going to let some measly rain ruin her day of fun at the carnival with Lucy, and moreover she was always prepared for the worst.

"Well, you won't be needing this anymore," Erza assured the other woman, pulling the sunhat off her head. "I have just the thing," she said, and she reached into her ever-heavy-always-full purse for an umbrella.

Perhaps a minute passed by before Erza, flustered, admitted—

"A-Actually…I think I might have left it home."

Lucy gave her a wink and gracefully pulled an umbrella from her purse. "Well, at least I always have your back," she crooned.

Erza couldn't help but smile, and as she watched the blonde open the umbrella and hold it up, she quickly swooped in and under the cover to bump hips with the shorter girl.

And while the umbrella still covered both of their heads, she discreetly pressed a kiss to Lucy's forehead before she took the umbrella from Lucy's hand. She stood back to her full height, propping the umbrella up to a height that fit both of them. She put her free arm around Lucy's waist.

"Well, I got your waist," she teased.

Lucy rolled her eyes but Erza knew she was a sucker for terrible jokes.

"You think they'll cancel the firework show tonight?" Lucy then asked, watching the pavement in front of them grow darker as more raindrops spotted on it and other crowds of people starting to trade the cotton candy and soft pretzels in their hands for umbrellas.

She looked back up at Erza, apologetically. "I'm sorry that today was the only day I could come. I know you wanted to watch the fireworks and if the rain keeps up, they might not do it."

Erza looked over at Lucy and shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't matter," she said. "No chance it would beat spending time with you."

* * *

 **thir13enth**


	5. dream castles

**notes** : written with haste. sorry for the rushed pacing.

contains implied **gratsu.**

* * *

 **dream castles**  
 _i'll help you build one_

* * *

After a three-day streak of rainy weather, Lucy was not about to let the abnormally sunny weather afterwards pass by without taking full advantage.

In fact, she was so determined that she wasn't going not stay inside that she was going to drag along everyone else too—because 72 hours trapped inside the guild had turned everyone's skin a little paler and if she was being completely honest, she was just a tad worried about her friends' spirits.

Of course, the first person that Lucy approached was Gray—because would the ice mage ever turn down an opportunity to be half-naked where he wouldn't receive scornful shouts and clucking tongues?—but to her dismay, he was not interested in accompanying Lucy to the beach.

"Nah, I wouldn't want to go with _you_ ," the raven-haired guildmate said.

Honestly she could have been offended. She didn't really understand why Gray had to stress that he didn't want to go with _her._ Moreover, she still couldn't fathom that Gray was actually letting go a chance to strip within normal range of social conventions.

"Sorry," he apologized, before mumbling something under his breath about doing such and such with Natsu to do something so and so — _just_ the two of them — and Lucy quickly brushed her offer for Gray off with a slight roll of her eye.

After two years in the guild, Lucy had learned that as much as Gray whined loudly about how annoying it was for the flamebrain to always be around him, it would also take Gray plenty of persuasive convincing to leave Natsu's side as well.

Rather, in other words, Lucy wasn't going to waste any more time trying to get the ice mage to join her outdoors day, and she quickly searched the rest of the guild for another one of her closest Fairy Tail nakama.

Ah, Lucy thought, seeing Erza sitting peacefully at the corner of a table on her own toward the far end of the guild hall, perhaps she could get Erza to accompany her. After all, the redhead was never one to turn down Lucy's offers to go shopping or to help out pick out new furniture to replace the broken ones in the guild, post Natsu-involved fights.

"Erza!" Lucy called out, sliding across the table to face her guildmate, who — as expected was busily occupied savoring the last half of a strawberry cake.

Before answering, Erza popped another bite of her strawberry cake into her mouth, a gesture that Lucy had no other description for except cute. She greeted Lucy with a lick of whipped cream from her spoon.

"Lucy," Erza returned. "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today?"

Lucy's eyes followed a small leftover puff of cream atop Erza's upper lip. Needless to say, it was very distracting. She reached over to the right to hand Erza a napkin, and then watched as Erza subsequently dabbed her mouth.

"I was wondering if you would come to the beach with me today," Lucy half-asked, more stuttered.

Erza looked intently at her, while Lucy froze, trying not to think about whether Erza thought it strange that Lucy was asking her—but why would Erza think it strange anyway? and would Erza honestly think anything strange?—or think about how awkward she was being.

But with Erza, everything is always about ten times more awkward, and so without surprise, that moment was just that.

"Of course, Lucy," Erza finally answered, putting down her spoon and standing up. "Let's go now," she said, stretching out her hand to Lucy.

Lucy looked down at the other woman's hand and started sputtering. "B-But you're not even dressed yet!"

Erza looked at her quizzedly, as if she wasn't sure why being clad in thick metal armor for the beach was strange at all. "Well," she explained. "I can just requip when I get there." And then Erza surveyed Lucy from head to toe briefly. "And it seems like you're dressed already."

Feeling a blush on her cheeks, Lucy glanced down at herself, checking to make sure that her white tank top wasn't _see-through_ or something—and it most definitely wasn't so Lucy isn't particularly sure how Erza was able to just _tell_ that Lucy had a swimsuit underneath her clothes but—

"Your swimsuit," Erza explained, pointing up at Lucy's low-cut tank top, of which the strings of her swimsuit were definitely visible.

"Ah," Lucy said, slightly embarrassed that she had even thought Erza might have looked anywhere else. She laughed sheepishly.

Erza returned a warm smile. "Ready then?" she asked.

"Definitely," Lucy replied, excited.

And in fact, she found herself so ecstatic that she completely forgot to ask if anyone else wanted to come along to the beach with them as well.

 **.**

 **.**

And now, after all of that, Lucy finds herself with Erza, making sand sculptures along the shore—as quickly as possible before the tide sets in.

"You know, I've always imagined having a house like this," Erza suddenly muses.

Lucy looks down at the castle at her feet, watching Erza sculpt down the sand of a tower on of the exterior end of the palace.

Erza's creation reminds Lucy of her father's home—with what seems like at least twenty rooms and four grand-standing towers. There's a moat around the palace grounds and if Lucy squints, she can see the gardens that Erza has traced in with a thin twig, filled with rose bushes and daffodil patches.

Of course Erza would dream of living in a place so grand.

And Lucy knows that Erza, of all people, would definitely shape her future to turn out that way.

Lucy squats down on the other side of Erza's sand building. She brushes her hair back into a loose ponytail against the warm ocean breeze while watching Erza work intently on the west-facing side of her castle.

She never thought she'd see the requip mage like this. Usually Erza was training or sharpening her fighting skills, Lucy didn't imagine that Erza ever had the time, even less the thought, of a humble future.

"Pass me a seashell," Lucy asks, and Erza doesn't question the blonde's intention, simply passing along a few shells to her. The shells glittered like rainbows in the setting scarlet sky.

She looks back at Erza, who is already back and focused on constructing the opposite face of her sand castle. Lucy holds back a smile—seeing how intense Erza's eyes are—and starts to place the seashells in decorative places on the sand palace.

"Oh!" Erza yelps, standing up.

Lucy stands up too—wondering what made the other woman jump—and she realizes that the tide is already starting to settle in.

The two of them watch the water recede and it's only when one of Erza's towers start crumbling downwards when they realize that their time to finish constructing their grand palace is up.

Erza looks a little sad. "Ah, well," Erza sighs, crossing her arms and looking down at the sinking tower. "There's always another time," she continues. "And one day, I'll actually have a castle of my own, right?"

Lucy nods. "I'll help you build it," she promises.

"Yeah?" Erza says, looking back up at her.

"Yeah," Lucy affirms, with a soft smile.

Erza looks at her for a moment and then returns a smile, before looking back down at the slow destruction of her sand castle.

But even tucked under her chin, Lucy notices Erza's grin growing, and this makes Lucy smile even wider.

* * *

yeah sorry the pacing is off. i just needed some erlu in my life and so i needed to write it.

 **thir13enth**


	6. in tune

**notes:** this was originally written back for femslash february but whatever okay every damn month is femslash february, okay. (i was even late for pride month sighhh)

* * *

 **in tune**  
 _Yeah no, you'll never see Erza at an acoustic rock concert.  
_ _Except if that new chick at work she really really likes just happens to be going as well._

* * *

Being a girl in love is hard enough, and while Erza is enthralled with being in love again after some misgivings with Gray, she huffs to herself as she admits that things are growing just a little more complicated as she finds herself falling for the new chick at work — Lucy Heartfilia.

Lucy is a sweet kind soul — blond and brown eyed and always announcing a good morning as she came in through the doors with two large coffees in her hands — one for herself, and one for whoever really needed the pick-me-up that day.

And often it was Erza, but only because Erza just _happened_ to learn how to time her arrival at work exactly right so that she would place her lunch in the work refrigerator and come out of the office kitchen to stoop into step with Lucy to grab the coffee and quick company.

But all that aside, this kind of crush is very new to Erza. Lucy isn't at all the type Erza often fell for. Erza fell for asshole men — the last one, the jackass Gray that, well, was just a jackass — and asshole women — the last one, Mira, which had not gone over well when Erza confessed she was bi.

Lucy is completely different. Lucy is happy and bubbly, and she doesn't seem to mind that Erza just always happens to arrive in due time to swipe her extra coffee or that Erza always kind of lingers after lunch to squeeze in a few awkward extra sentences of conversation before they both returned to their respective desk spaces or that Erza coincidentally frequents the bathroom at the same time as her.

In fact, Erza thought for a long that maybe Lucy was only being nice and tolerating Erza's creepiness, but then one night at a company mixer after a few glasses of wine and uninhibited socialization, Lucy began getting incredibly touchy, every now and then running her fingers over Erza's forearm, and even eventually locking arms with her.

Not that Erza minded, but Erza really couldn't keep her mind off of just taking Lucy and kissing her right then and there and taking her home straight away. Except that their supervisor also happened to be around at the entire night. And also Erza didn'treally feel proud about making their first date — even if things went along perfectly after — their company mixer.

So as frustrating as it was that Erza could not just make a move on Lucy that entire night, Erza could no longer get past the idea that Lucy _just maybe_ was also secretly attracted to Erza.

 _And maybe this entire time_ , Lucy made sure to come into the office at the exact same time every day and just happened to get the coffee the way Erza liked every single morning. And maybe this entire time, Lucy was just eating really slow specifically to wait out everyone else so Erza would stay longer. Maybe this entire time, Lucy was drinking a ton of water and going to the bathroom precisely so she could pass by Erza's desk, looking for evidence for a woman-loving Erza.

And this entire thing sucks. Mostly because now Erza is actually starting to believe that _something more_ could actually be a possibility. And now Lucy isn't just a cute crush but a full-on someone for Erza to actively pursue.

The sheer number of hours Erza spent thinking about Lucy is unforgivable. Erza must have lost at least 40 hours of productivity in the past few days just thinking about Lucy's smile or the way Lucy ever so gracefully picked up a piece of paper that dropped onto the floor.

Yet still, there is always doubt. Maybe Lucy is just one of those girls that had sleepovers with other girls and had full-on conversations with her girl friends in the locker room and went bra shopping with her girl friends and did all these really close girl things with other girls but was _not at all_ attracted to them.

And honestly, Erza isn't sure if she hoped Lucy was into women or not. She isn't sure which of the truths would be better for Erza at the end. If Lucy _is_ actually into women, Erza knows that she would absolutely not be able to resist trying to get together with Lucy and eventually probably get her heart broken when she discovers Lucy doesn't like her _that_ way, but at the same time if Lucy _isn't_ into women, Erza would remain in this unrequited love for the rest of her life knowing that she would never have a chance because Lucy would never like her in _that_ way.

So, it's a lose-lose situation.

In fact, this is what Erza is pondering just before Lucy suddenly taps her shoulder.

Erza's heart jumps out of her chest, and she slowly swivels around, trying her best not to whip Lucy in the face with her ponytail, but more importantly, trying her best to not seem too excited about the fact that Lucy is talking with her at all.

"Hey," Erza says, giving Lucy as unshaken of a smile as she can.

"How's your morning been?"

"Good," Erza laughs softly, struggling to find out what to say aside from asking if Lucy has plans that weekend. "Just really happy that it's Friday."

Lucy returns a laugh. "Yeah," she agrees. "I can't wait for this weekend. I don't know if you know about Proposition 13 coming to Magnolia tomorrow night?"

"Proposition 13?" Erza asks.

"Oh," Lucy says, covering her smile with the tips of her fingertips. "Sorry, they're a band. Super 90's but they recently got back together and are still rocking out."

And it's that moment when all of Erza's sensors go off. Erza can no longer deny that Lucy is in fact flirting with her. Three signs: Lucy is asking her about weekend plans. Lucy is asking her if she's going to concert. Lucy is giving her signals that she wants her to come with her.

Erza _has_ to respond appropriately.

"Oh yeah, Proposition 13!" Erza exclaims, waving her momentary confusion off. "I haven't heard of them in a while. I love them so much! Yes! I actually already have tickets and I wasn't sure if anyone I knew was going. Are you going?"

Big lies all around. But never mind that. Lucy is interested in her after all, right?

So this lie, Erza thinks, is totally worth the risk.

Lucy's eyes brighten. She blinks a few times. "Oh, oh! Yeah! I am!" she exclaims.

Erza takes the opportunity right away. "Do you want to go with me?"

"Of course!" Lucy replies immediately. She gives Erza a big smile. "I'd love to go with you! It'll be a great bonding time between office colleagues. Maybe you want to meet up somewhere beforehand?"

Bonding time between office colleagues? Is Lucy friendzoning her?

Regardless, Erza sees another opportunity, and she is not letting it go. "Yeah, I was thinking of getting some food before going — maybe you want to meet somewhere to eat and then we can go together?"

"Yeah, sure that works." Lucy pulls out her phone. "I can't believe I don't have your number yet," she says, scrolling through her screen. She hands her phone to Erza. "Mind typing it in for me?"

Erza is stunned. She can't believe how well this is going. There is no awkwardness, no hesitation — everything is going exactly the way she wants it to.

This can only mean one thing: Lucy is _actually_ as interested in Erza as Erza is in her.

Gingerly, Erza hands Lucy back her phone. The weight of Lucy's phone feels so much different than her own, and Lucy has a softer and more gel-life case. "Text me back so I have your number?" she asks Lucy. "And… I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Definitely," Lucy says, typing away into her phone. "I just sent a message to you. I'll see you then! We'll figure out where to eat tomorrow."

Erza feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. "Yeah, for sure," she replies, waving a goodbye as Lucy picks herself up from the chair and heads back to her cubicle space. Erza watches her walk all the way to the end of the hall and around the corner, her heart beating fast.

Once Lucy is completely out of sight, Erza frantically waves the computer mouse around to wake her computer up, immediately searching up Proposition 13. She clicks on the first page that comes up, and to her horror, the description is incredibly disappointing.

"Acoustic rock?" she whispers to herself.

This is bad. Not only is acoustic rock not something Erza can see herself jamming out to, but acoustic rock obviously means that the concert would involve a lot of crowd sing-a-long, and Erza has never heard of this whatever until this very moment.

Erza has plenty to learn about Proposition 13, but most importantly, she has a concert ticket to buy.

Flipping up another tab on her computer, she quickly searches for Magnolia tickets for Proposition 13, and she is relieved to see that there are still some tickets left to buy. And even if they're at ridiculous prices right now, Erza is more than willing to pay a couple of hundred jewels than to let Lucy down.

Once she's confirmed for the ticket, she gets to work on educating herself — immediately plugging in her headphones to the computer to listen and familiarize herself with Proposition 13.

Settling herself in for a long research session, Erza looks back at her phone, at the message Lucy sent her.

 _Hi, it's Lucy! See you tomorrow!_

At this, Erza smiles and tucks her phone back into her pocket.

.

.

The next time Erza gets up from the seat, it's already six in the evening. Of course, it's not like Erza didn't notice the time — all her co-workers kept walking by to tell her goodbye, distracting her from Proposition 13 and forcing her to flip tabs to something work-related. But Erza is so completely invested in trying to learn all of Proposition 13's songs — all the meantime, suffering in the genre and in the sappy lyrics — that she barely realized that it was getting so late.

Erza decides to continue her researching in the comfort of her couch. Picking up her stuff, she heads to the elevator, clicking the down button and waiting for the elevator. Her eyes light up when she hears a familiar clacking of heels.

"Oh, hey, Erza," Lucy says, coming up behind her.

Erza turns around. "Oh, hi," she greets, watching Lucy come up beside her. "I, uh… I didn't know you'd still be here this late."

"Yeah, I had a lot of things to finish up before this weekend," Lucy explains.

"Same," Erza replies.

She doesn't mention she actually didn't finish anything she was supposed to do that Friday, instead, just listening to Proposition 13 and reading through all the fansites in preparation for tomorrow.

"Um… I was thinking," Lucy suggests. "Maybe we can go to the café just down Aragon Avenue and then take the train over to the stadium? That's where I live, but I wasn't sure if you lived in that area, as well."

Erza keeps herself from smiling too wide. And now, Lucy is telling her where she lives?!

"Totally works," Erza promises her, in as calm of a voice as she can muster.

This is working out so much better than Erza would have ever expected.

.

.

"So," Erza says, interrupting what seems like an awkward silence. "You excited for tonight?"

Lucy gives her a nod, taking a bite out of her sandwich. "Hell yeah," she replies. "What about you?

"Definitely," Erza responds, unable to help the smile that comes to her lips. God, this girl is so cute, especially when she says the word hell. Erza just can't get Lucy's smile out of her head.

The night is going well so far, and the conversation is pleasant. Erza's learned plenty about Lucy already: Lucy, of course, is vegetarian, which explains her chowing away at a veggie sandwich as opposed to Erza, who is face first in the middle of a burger.

Although Erza must mention that Lucy is dressed in the most casual yet cute outfit ever. Seeing her in casual is relieving to Erza, who spent a very long time in front of the mirror trying on different outfits attempting to get the right dress code for their maybe-date. Erza had to dress well enough to look great in case Lucy was thinking of a date but she also had to keep her outfit low-key in case Lucy wasn't thinking at all of that kind of date.

At any rate, once Erza saw Lucy in a cute simple top and form-hugging short shorts, Erza internally breathed a sigh of relief because she was pretty much wearing the same thing. And as unclear Lucy's outfit made the objective of tonight, Lucy looks really nice, and Erza can't keep her eyes off her.

"I'm hoping they start off with the song Wine-Stained Kisses first," Lucy says, after a sip of her water. She waggles her eyebrows at Erza. "I heard that's the song they started with at their concert over in Alvarez and people went wild over it."

Damn. Lucy really must really love this band. And it's a good thing Erza did her homework. Erza quickly runs through her head the titles of all the songs she had been playing on repeat since last night. Wine-Stained Kisses. Yes, that one.

"Oh yeah?" she replies. "That would be amazing. I can just imagine the light show that would go with that."

According to Erza's research and readthrough of many websites, Proposition 13's shows often used lights and plenty of smoke.

Lucy's eyes roll up to the ceiling in imagination. "I can only imagine." Her eyes snap back to Erza. "I can't believe we never talked about this before."

Erza smiles stiffly. It's probably because Erza didn't actually know the band before Lucy brought it up, but yeah, she had to agree she and Lucy should have been talking for much longer before all of this.

"Well, I'm glad that we're spending time together now," Erza replies, giving her a big smile. "If anything, Proposition 13 brought us together, so that's another reason to love them."

"Yeah…" Lucy replies, twirling her hair. Her eyes linger on Erza's eyes for a little longer than what seems normal to Erza.

Erza's heart stops. This is the moment, isn't it? She's suddenly extremely aware of how close her hand is next to Lucy's across the table, and how Lucy's hand is just… _waiting_ for her to place her hand over it. Erza doesn't take her eyes away from Lucy, but slowly leans forward so she can graze her fingers over Lucy's hand —

Lucy burps, and then laughs. "Sorry, about the pause," she giggles. "I was focusing really hard to try to keep that burp in." She smiles. "But I must have eaten too fast! I got really excited."

Erza freezes for two seconds, but then starts to laugh. "Oh, haha!" she laughs. "That's fine," she says.

She loves this. She loves all of this. Spending time with Lucy. Lucy's so funny, nice, genuine, and real.

But she still hasn't figured out what to make of this whole situation. Every time Erza is convinced that Lucy _like_ likes her, something else happens that makes Erza doubt it all over again.

Eventually, the two of them split the check and call a ride to get them to the concert.

In the back of the car seat, Lucy continues to babble on about her excitement about Proposition 13, but all the words just pass through Erza's ears. She's distracted with every bump along the Magnolia's shitty Main Street — not because she's never driven over these potholes herself in her own car on the way to work, but because every now and then, Erza's hand brushes over Lucy's arm.

And sometimes, Lucy doesn't seem to notice at all.

.

.

Of course, by the time they get to the stadium, the concert is a complete mess already.

Lucy and Erza try to squeeze in as close as possible to the platform, and in no time, they are completely swallowed into the crowd of band-crazy people. Lucy is great at weaving between the many exhilarated and sweaty bodies, and Erza starts getting anxious that she might lose her. Lucy isn't that tall, and even while Erza wouldn't miss Lucy's golden hair for anything, Erza still finds it hard to keep up.

Lucy — as kind and considerate as ever — keeps looking back to check on Erza, making sure Erza is never more than an arm's reach away. She flashes a smile back at Erza with every line of people they get passed. The deafening sounds of screaming fans begin to fade, and soon all Erza can hear is the grin on Lucy's lips.

"Come on," she encourages, rolling her eyes when seeing Erza fall back once more. "You're holding us both up!"

With that, she reaches back and grabs Erza's hand in hers, weaving their hands together.

Erza fights back a blush over her cheeks, suddenly grateful about the wash of red light the band is emitting from the stage.

Lucy's hand feels just right in hers, and Lucy holds on so tightly that for a moment, Erza feels like Lucy's hand has belonged in hers the entire time.

Just as they find a spot in the crowd that can fit the two of them side-by-side, the lead guitarist jumps out onto stage, yelling into the microphone and strumming a chord, riling up the crowd and officially starting the show.

As everyone around them explodes into screaming exuberance, Erza looks over to Lucy.

Lucy smiles back, mouthing unheard words to Erza. She then faces the stage again, raising her fist into the air and screaming right along with the rest of the crowd, her other hand still securely entwined with Erza's.

Erza takes another few seconds to watch how bright Lucy's face turns as the music starts. A thrum vibrates hard at the center of Erza's chest, and she's not sure if it's the melody of the upcoming song or the blossoming of her growing feelings.

.

.

Erza is having fun — she truly is.

But by the fifth song, Erza's conscience starts itching at her.

She hates pretending to be singing along whenever Lucy looks in her direction, and she hates giving Lucy the biggest smile like she's as thrilled about the band as she is about Lucy.

Lucy is so into Propostion 13, and with every passing minute, it feels less and less comfortable to have taken advantage of Lucy's love for the band to try to snag a date with her. It's not fair, and it's not right, and Erza is starting to confuse the feelings of her inevitable crush with Lucy, the rationalizing of figuring out what Lucy wants with her, and this guilt she increasingly has about the whole situation.

An overwhelming desire to just tell Lucy everything — her long-time crush and her lying about Proposition 13, down to her making sure to come into work at the same time as Lucy to grab the spare coffee and going to lunch whenever she saw Lucy was going — fills Erza's chest. But at the same time, the last thing she wants is Lucy thinking differently of her, that she had been manipulative all along.

On the other hand, this is _exactly_ what Erza is, and it's not right for her to keep up this front forever.

Erza feels Lucy tug at her hand.

She looks up at her, and Lucy says something to Erza, her eyes concerned.

Erza can't make out at all what Lucy is saying. Erza furrows her eyebrows, shaking her head.

Lucy tries again, but Erza signals to her once more that she can't hear a thing. Finally, Lucy sighs and looks back behind them, before walking her completely out of the crowd.

They walk until Erza can hear Lucy's footsteps next to hers.

"Hey," Lucy asks. "What's wrong?"

Lucy's hand is still wrapped around Erza's. Erza slowly takes her hand back to cross her arms together.

"Oh, nothing," Erza replies, finding herself backing out of her decision to just confess everything. "I don't know why you wanted to talk out here."

Lucy looks at her weirdly. "No, I don't think you're telling me the truth."

Erza meets Lucy's eyes, her mouth opening and closing, mustering up the courage she needs. She finally closes her eyes and inhales sharply—

"No. I'm not," she confesses.

Lucy looks up at Erza, attention ready.

"Honestly, I… don't really know the lyrics to any of these songs," Erza continues, stumbling over her words. "I mean, I know some of them but… mostly I'm just pretending."

She watches Lucy's eyes, watching any sign of upset. However betrayed Lucy may feel about this, Erza would completely understand and would deserve all the consequences.

Lucy looks at her confusedly. "What?" she exclaims, baffled. "I've been listening to you yell out the lyrics! You know more than I do."

Erza gives her a crooked smile. "Well… that's because I studied all of them really hard before coming here."

Lucy's smile grows wider. "You _what_?" Then she cackles hard and loud, up until the point she starts wheezing, and Erza can't help but fall in love head over heels with her laugh. "You _studied_ for this?" She snorts, trying to keep in laughter, and Erza resists the urge to take her by the arms and just squeeze her.

Well now, Erza can't deny being so lame, so now she just has to roll with it and come out with the rest of the truth. "I just…" she explains. "I actually don't know this band at all and I don't like their music and I really just came out here because I saw you were really excited about the band and I wanted to come here with you."

Lucy shakes her head, the corners of her mouth still stretched high from the big smile on her face. "And here I was, thinking you actually really loved this band and putting myself in this situation to go with you! I was fooled by your acting this whole time!"

This takes Erza by complete surprise. "Wait what?"

"Honestly, I was just…" and here, a pink flush covers Lucy's cheeks — and the two of them are definitely far enough away from the red light from the stage. "I was just trying to get to know you better so I thought I would see if you were into this band event that was happening this weekend." She pauses, rephrasing. "Well _actually_ , if you hadn't heard about the band, I was going to just ask if you were doing anything this weekend and if you wanted to hang out anyway."

Erza blinks. Oh.

 _Oh_.

"And then you said that you had tickets already so… I thought maybe it would be fun to see you in action, even if I didn't know the band."

Suddenly, Erza does distinctly remember that she _had_ been the one to make up a huge story about already having tickets. "Ah," she says, realizing she shot herself in the foot.

"Well," Lucy continues, smiling wryly. "I guess we're hanging out anyway — even if at a concert for a band we're not that into."

"You really got me, then," Erza replies with an embarrassed smile.

Lucy smiles, and then she tilts her head to Erza.

"So…" Lucy suggests, with a bite of her bottom lip. "What do you think about skipping the rest of this concert and just hanging out for the rest of the day?"

Erza couldn't agree more.

* * *

 **thir13enth**


End file.
